Lim Swee Say: Hospitality industry must propel S'pore servic
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Hospitality industry must propel S'pore service standards: Lim Swee Say
By Claire Huang | 02 July 2010SINGAPORE: With stiff global competition, gunning for gold is now not good enough. That's why Labour Chief Lim Swee Say has urged the hospitality industry to strive to be better than the best.
He said this during a session to learn more about the success of the Customer-Centric Initiative of The Ritz-Carlton on Friday
36-year-old Jalee Sulaiman enjoys his job as a club concierge so much that he even invited two hotel guests from London to his house for a real taste of Singapore.
He also came up with a heartland tour to places like Toa Payoh and Ang Mo Kio.
He said: "It was during the Ramadan month and we were celebrating the fasting month. They stayed with us throughout the Hari Raya period as well.
“They have conveyed their intentions to go to the heartlands and away from the conventional tour programmes that we normally provide them."
Jalee also took pains to buy them the traditional Malay attire in their favourite colour.
And going the extra mile had been rewarding.
He added: "Most of them have become my close friends and we are even on Facebook. So we also keep in touch with each other through SMS and that makes their travel easier. In fact, when they come to Singapore the next time round, they can just SMS me and everything will be done for them, from reservation to airport transfer to dinner reservations.”
Jalee is one of 11 staff of The Ritz-Carlton who received the hotel's "WOW" award under its Mystique Moments programme.
Peter Mainguy, general manager, The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore, said: "The WOW story is an expression that we use about giving the guests a blow-away experience, beyond the guests' experience and expectations.
The Customer-Centric Initiative (CCI) was launched by the government in 2005 to encourage companies to commit to service excellence.
More than 200 firms have participated in it.
The CCI first targeted the retail sector and was extended to others like the food and beverage industry as well as the healthcare sector.
The hospitality industry was its latest extension with close to 30 hotels and service apartments taking part.
In May last year, The Ritz-Carlton was the first in the hospitality sector to embrace the Customer-Centric Initiative.
It topped the national Customer Satisfaction Index for Singapore in 2009.
But there's always room for improvement.
Mr Lim said: "If every one of us in the service sector in Singapore can adopt the same mindset, in terms of having a service quality target, a productivity target, an innovation target - maybe with the three coming together, there is hope we can achieve a breakthrough in a very widespread manner.
"If you're the best today, strive to be better. If you're better today, strive to be ‘betterer’ and if you're ‘betterer’ today, strive to be ‘betterest’ so that over time, Singapore's service standards can just keep getting better, ‘betterer’ and ‘betterest’."
Mr Lim said the constant drive to improve will propel the country's service standards to greater heights. - CNA/vm -
Ris Low is (was?) doing a course in "hospritality"
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Wah, he really used the word "betterest". If CNA is quoting it, it can't be wrong.
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Originally posted by ditzy:
Wah, he really used the word "betterest". If CNA is quoting it, it can't be wrong.
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/07/singaporeans-never-good-enough/
We got to be "betterest" !
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invite to the house? haha gotta be kidding. true hospitality comes from the heart and that is enough.
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hospitality with the betterest still fall far short from the being the best..the tone deliberately sounds more consolatory than effective...slow moving than fast moving .... intentional use of Singlish to drive home the message...
passion is the most powerful word next to love...and also the most unrecognized
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i propose best, bester, bestest
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Originally posted by Fcukpap:
i propose best, bester, bestest
Still can't beat him.
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For one person, who dunno what is good, better and best ?
He made a fool out of his ignorance.
Why do we need a slogan man to shout slogan ???